![[Update] US Justice Department Sues Activision Blizzard for Supressing eSports Wages](/articles_media/images/us-justice-department-sues-activision-blizzard-for-supressed-esports-players-wages-212059_expanded.jpg)
[Update] US Justice Department Sues Activision Blizzard for Supressing eSports Wages - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2023 / 4,916 Views
Update:
The US Justice Department has agreed to a settlement with Activision Blizzard to resolve the lawsuit filed earlier today, according to Reuters.
"Activision Blizzard Esports is committed to being a leader in the esports industry and creating opportunities for players to earn fair pay and benefits," said an Activision Blizzard spokesperson in a statement to VideoGamesChronicle.
"When we launched The Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues, we wanted to create viable career opportunities for the players requiring minimum salaries and mandatory benefits as part of player contracts. As a league, we also wanted our products to be competitive, so we carefully designed and implemented the Competitive Balance Tax.
"We have always believed, and still believe, that the Competitive Balance Tax was lawful, and it did not have an adverse impact on player salaries. The tax was never levied, and the leagues voluntarily dropped it from our rules in 2021. We remain committed to a player ecosystem with fair pay and healthcare and continue to have the least restrictive player mobility compensation system across all of the major sports leagues."
Original article:
The US Justice Department announced it has sued Activision Blizzard due to suppressing wages for eSports players.
The civil lawsuit filed by the US Justice Department claims Activision Blizzard in two of its eSports leagues implemented a so called "Competitive Balance Tax" that effectively operated as a salary cap. This penalized teams in the Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues.
"Video games and esports are among the most popular and fastest growing forms of entertainment in the world today, and professional esports players—like all workers—deserve the benefits of competition for their services. Activision’s conduct prevented that from happening," said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
"Today’s lawsuit makes clear that the Antitrust Division remains committed to protecting workers across all types of industries from anticompetitive conduct."
The Antitrust Division has filed a proposal consent decree to address competition concern. If approved it would prohibit Activision from imposing any rule that would limit player compensation in any of Activision’s professional esports leagues. The consent decree would require Activision to end all Competitive Balance Taxes in its professional eSports leagues.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Taxes are suppressing my wage, will sue the government =p
Do it.
This was settled super fast. Damn.
And there I was thinking that it was the 1 year cycle that impeded CoD's e-sports abilities, but it was yet another Activision schemes/bad management.
I'm not surprised this happened.
so Activision/blizzard can do all kind of bullshit as long as the government gets a slice of the pie
LOL, " The tax was never levied, and the leagues voluntarily dropped it from our rules in 2021."
Government being the government, suing Blizzard over something that was never used.
Hush money?
Well, that was quick. Settled it inside of a day?
